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The Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1869.

How to manage the aborigines, has ever bsen a difficult^ question with all civilised nations who have attempted to colonise a savage country. In the early days of the settlement of North America, when the colonists were weak, and the natives strong and warlike, it was simply a stubborn fight until increasing numbers and superior advantages drove the aboriginal savages back, and vices acquired from their conquerors destroyed them. Our neighbours in Australia and' Tasmania having the means at command, adopted the very simple process of killing off the native race, in which they succeeded admirably, and we, erring in the other extreme, have tried so many schemes for preserving, civilising, and elevating the Maori, Jfchat, like Frankenstein, our experiments have resulted in the creation of a monster which appals us and threatens ua with destruction. More fortunate than Mrs. Shelley's hero, we aro in a position to undo our handiwork, and ifc may he worth our while to look around us and note the system which has been pursued in circumstances similar to ours by nations which have been successful colonists. In dealing with the aborigines of Java, the Dutch had an arduous task before them v/hich they succeeded in accomplishing, and the method they employ is thus described by a Melbourne contemporary :— "The people, through their chiefs, are induced to give a portion of their time to the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and other valuable products. A fixed rate of wages — low, indeed, but about equal to that of all places •where European competition has not artificially raised it— was paid to the laborers engiged in o'earing the ground, or forming the plantation under Government superintendence. The produce is sold at a low fixed

price ; out of the net profits a percentage goes to the chiefs, and the remainder is divided among the workmen. The people are well fed and decently clothed, and have acquired habits of steady industry, and the art of scientific cultivation, which must be of service to them in future. It must be remembered that the Government expended capital for years before any return was obtained, and if they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way that is far less burdensome and far more beneficial to the people than any tax that could be levied." The result of this system has been to make the island defray all expenses of its management, pay large salaries to native and Dutch officials, support an army, and contribute £3,000,000 annually to the revenue of Holland. So well has it worked, that it has extended to Celebes, and the fruits of it are thus mentioned by an English traveller :—: — " Forty years ago the country (Celebes) was a wilderness, the people naked savages, garnishing their rude houses ¦with human heads. 'How it is a garden worthy of its sweet native name of Mincasa. Good roads and paths traverse in every direction ; some of the finest eotlee plantations in the worid surround the villages, interspersed with extensive rice fields more than sudicient for the support; of the population. The people are now the most industrious, peaceable, and civilised in the whole Archipelago. They are the bc3t clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and the best educated, and they have made some progress towards a higher social state. I believe there is no example elsewhere of such striking results being produced in so short a time — results entirely due to the system of government now adopted by the Dutch in their Eastern iwssessions. " There may be something in this system despotic and anti-English. No doubt there is. But there can be no doubt that we have erred in affording too great latitude to our savages in dealing with them. Instead of treating them as children, requiring authority and guidance, we have placed them in the position of grown up men, and the result is that we have utterly spoiled them, and prepared trouble for ourselves and misery for them. With the best intentions in the world we have done great wrong to the Maori, simply because we gave him his own "way, when he should have been forced to walk in ours, and the blood and treasure we have expended in conflict might have been saved by judicious firmness at first. We cannot follow out the Dutch system in detail, but its general principles may afford us some useful hints, as we may now be convinced that in the present generation the Maori race must be subjected to authority and guidance.

As illicit naturally be supposed, other ' Colonies besides New Zealand have had their attention aroused by the attitude assumed towards them by the Imperial Government. Different to us, the Australian Colonies, possessing the advantage of assured internal peace, and experiencing tho benefits of continued prosperity, are quite indifferent as to what may or may not be done by England. The Sydney Morning Herald, commenting on the article in the London Times which speaks of discarding the Colonies as a thing agreed on, and to which we have already referred, says :—": — " We have nothing to complain of, and at present make no complaints. We want nothing from England, and we desire no ahare in her government. The course of our commerce will follow the old channels if they are let alone. M * * * People have talked of a Colonial empire won for England at a trifling cost, planted by adventurous colonists, and which wafts on every tide the abounding affluence of the new to the old world, as if it were only a burden and a bore, and to be vilely cast away ! Never was a country so richly paid for outlay — never did any nation possess such a priceless boon, The English nation, however, knows very little of what makes her the wonder and envy of the world. * * * * * We infer, chiefly from the newspapers, that England has been a good deal embarrassed with her Colonies. Perhaps some money may be made out of them, if England sink as low as Spain. A youuger speculator may give her a trifle for her territory. We see how great noblemen have lately got rid of their paternal estates, and how the Jews have bought them up ; and some nations may have a bargain. England can then, like John Wesley, sing, when not too far gone, 'No foot of land do I possess' — a blessed state of exemption from care — no border wars, no insurgent natives, no saucy assemblies. Eng, land may then be happy, and, like her illustrious prototype, go into the tulip lineAfter all, it is a sorrowful thing to sec that which has adorned a diadem, in the snout of swine — to see the grandest Empire ever created descend to the schedule of a peddling merchant by whom everything is valued according not to what it is worth, but what it will bring. Napoleon the First said idealist philosophy would destroy an empire of granite ; he himself performed a similar exploit with gunpowder. He must have aaid the same of the political economy of other men. But there is a destiny inhuman affairs; and one of the most striking causes of decline is that its first stages are a relief, and that it is only afterwards there is a consciousness of yawning destruction." An accident occurred on the Hutt road yesterday to a party of holiday Jehus, which resulted in a considerable amount of damage. The accounts received of it are rather conflicting, but, from what we can gather, the facts seem to be something like the following : — A party of six gentlemen, Messrs. Moore, Ehrmann, Reid, Taylor, Sellars, and Adair, hired two vehicles from Mr. Somerville for an excursion to the Hutt, on which they proceeded — four in one trap and two in

another. They reached the Hutb without misadventure, but, on returning, when somewhere about the big slip, the hinderniost horse from some cause ran against the trap in front, and caused the horse to start off. Unable to manage him, the occupants of the vehicle jumped out, receiving some severe contusions in doing so ; the horse galloped on for some time, when he was stopped, and the party mounted again, and again they were forced to jump out : this time the horse capsized the buggy against the bank, and broke ifc, and, kicking himself free of the harness, made his way to Ngahauranga, where he was captured. What happened to the party behind does not clearly appear, but, at all events, they did not drive into town — both buggies were drawn home behind a cart, and the horses led, the excursionists being forced to walk. Four of the party are more or less injured, and two of them had narrow escapes of losing their lives. Both horses are considerably knocked about, one has hia shoes off ; one trap has an axle bent, and the other is smashed and twisted in all directions. Forty pounds is the climated damage. The excursionists put all tho blame on the horses, and Mr. Somerville, on the other hand, has heard that racing was the cause of the downfall. As the matter will likely be brought into Court, we will express no opinion on it beyond this, that waut of skill in driving was doubtless at the bottom of it all. Livery stable keepers should make it a rule not to let traps to parties they don't know to be capable of talking care of them, except a man is sent to drive — a course which would prevent these occurrences which are far too common. JVlr. Loinax, of the Defence department, has, we are informed, at the special request of Col. M'Donnell, and with the acquiescence of the heads of his department, accepted an appointment on the Colonel's stall", and will leave for the North in a few days. Young as he is, Mr. Lomax has shown that he is made of the right stuff, by the very plucky way in which he stuck to his farm in the Waitotara while there was a chance of saving the property, and while his neighbours' hoiises were blazing around him, in the days when Tifcoko Waru was lord of the ascendant in the " West Countric." In the Court of Appeal, to-day, the case of Croucher v. Croucher, a petition for divorce, was decided. The evidence was heard, and a rule nisi granted for dissolution of the marriage, unless cause were sshown before the next sitting of the full Court. The firing by the Artillery Volunteera for the silver cornet presented by P. A. Buckley, Estj. (late captain of the corps), took place yesterday afternoon. Immediately after the Battery had finished firing the salute in honor of the Prince of Wales' birthday, the competitors proceeded to the ground and partook of a luncheon provided for them by Capfcain Peavce. There was a large number of spectators on the ground, and the Artillery Band was present, and enlivened the scene by some capital music. In addition to Captain Buckley's prize, there were three money prizes of the following value :- -£3 3s, £2 2s, aud £I U. The day was all that could be wished for, but the shooting was not so good .is was anticipated, although a few of the competitors succeeded in making very fair scores. The conditioii3 of the firing were as follows :— 3OO, 400, and 500 yards ; five shots at each range, with a sighting shot ; standing or kneeling at 300 yards, any position afterwards. Owing to the lateness of the hour, it was agreed to do away with the sighting shots at 400 and 500 yards. Sergeant Zohrab was the winner of the first prize, with the score of 47 points ; Trumpeter M'Cleland, second prize, 43 points; and for the third and fourth prizes, Bandsman Bidmead and Gunner Dransfield were ties at 41 points, and, after firing off three times, the third prize was taken by Bidraead, he scoring a centre against an outer of Dransfield's. The following are the totals made by the whole of the competitors at each range :—: —

In mentioning, yesterday, that the contractors for the repair of the Hutt road had offered to open it by Wednesday night, on payment of £3 by the carriers, we fell into an error ; it should have been £5 altogether, made up among them. The Marton correspondent of the Wanganui Evening Herald says ;—"; — " The Gold Mining Company here have resolved to send out a prospecting party, probably next week. The number of shares taken up, and consequently the means of the company being limited, they intend at present to prospect in the immediate neighborhood only, that is to say, on the Mangarahupe stream, in the direction of Major Marshall's. 1 sincerely hope their efforts will be rewarded, but I fear they place too much importance on a specimen asserted by some to have been

found in that direction. The specimen is small, but rich, aud I wish I could believe it was not lost by some one, for the discovery of such a specimen in any place would inspire the least sanguine with faith in the probability of a rich field. Hammond's party have started up the river. Surely if there is gold about here it rmist soon be discovered by some of the numerous parties now prospecting. I hear some started from Manawatu the other day to try the ranges."' Yesterday Mr. Gibson, ironmonger, met with an accident while out on horseback at Lyall's Bay. Hiding rather quickly among the sandhills, his horse put his fore feet in a soft place, and came down heavily, striking the rider in the face with his feet as he was in the acb of getting up. Mr. Gibson has received some rather severe cuts, but is not dangerously injured. A very exciting race came oil" yesterday morning, at the Hurt, between Mr. J. Blatchford's pony, Swing Tail, and 3.1 r. Stephen Mudgway's pony, Bumble, from the Koro Koro bridge to Valentine's Hotel— a distance of over two miles — both owners riding their own horses. There was a very good race to Fitzherberfs bridge, where Bumble bolted, leaving the race entirely to Swing Tail. The time was 5 minutes 301 seconds. Thore was a large attendance of spectators, who enjoyed the race much. Mr. Blatchford is about sixty years of age, and Mr. Mudgway lifty-iivo. It will be seen by advertisement in another column that the manager of the Auld Iteekie Goldmining Convpany intends to sue for all calls not paid within seven days of the date on which they are due. Our Wangauui evening contemporary (who snys he represents par excellence the youth of Wanganui, possibly on account of his want of discretion) has taken lire at a paragraph of ours, which he alleges impugns the courage of the aforesaid " youth," by nicutioning a certain dibch and bank fence projected some time ago in the " historic town, "from behind which it was intended to shoot Titoko Waru when he came in from Kai Iwi to pay them a visit. The Herald is careful to point out that only the old men were connected with this fortification — we Lave no means of ascertainingthe exact ages of the parties concerned, but certain it is the thing was proposed to be done. But really our contemporary jumps at conclusions very hastily : congratulating our friends on having recovered their spirits aud gone in for sport, can surely not be tortured into accusing them of want of courage. The whole country knows that the "youth of Wanganui" are Bayards to a man. Did they not defend the Wereroa Pa, aud the for many hours in the direction in which the Han Haus were supposed to be ? And their other doughty deeds of valour, are they not written in the chronicles of Whitmoro :uid M'Donnell? Far be it be it from us to call in ijuestion the heroic conduct of Young Wanganui. Last night about 10 o : ok>ek, people living in the Market-place might have heard the most fearful screams proceeding from the direction of where the s.s. Kennedy was lying. It was then ascertained that a woman | had fallen into the river. The sailors belonging to the Kennedy exerted themselves to the utmost, and laid hold of her as she was being carried down p.tst the Kennedy by the strong current that was running at the time. When, she was brought on to the whaif it was found that she was a Mis. Graham, aud when she recovered from a state of feiniinscnsibility stated how the accident had occurred. Having taken her passage in the Kennedy, she was proceeding on board, believing it was intended that the steamer would, leave early this morniug. Trying to get on board in the dark, she stepped down between the side of the vessel and the wharf. — Wanganui Herald, 4th Nov. H.M.S. Virago leaves to-day for the Fiji Islands, having on board the British Consul, Mr. Marsh. From thence she will proceed to Prince of Wales' Island, to inquire into the particulars of the batbarous murders committed on the crew of the Sperwer, as reported by telegram. — Sydney Herald, 30th October.

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